“The Surface”: All is (not quite) lost on Lake Michigan

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“The Surface” opens Friday at Point Cinemas. PG-13, 1:26, two and a half stars out of four. The film’s director of photography and co-producer, Jimmy Sammarco, will be doing a Q&A after the 7 p.m. show on Saturday, May 16.

First off, all hail Gil Cates, Jr’s “The Surface” for not only shooting in Milwaukee, but shooting the hell out of Milwaukee. The city looks great in the film, from the shots of Milwaukee’s gorgeous lakefront to the vast blue waters of Lake Michigan, which the film makes look both soothing and ominous.

Cates and screenwriter-producer Josh Gendelman plunk two intriguing characters (played by two strong character actors) in the middle of this blue and watches what happens. “The Surface” is at its best, both as a suspense drama and as a character study, when it keeps things that simple and elemental.

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Lakeside Cinema’s new film series provides vehicle for summer fun

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Even if you’re not going anywhere this summer, the UW-Madison’s Lakeside Cinema series, which projects free movies on the UW Memorial Union Terrace every Monday night through the summer, will set you in motion.

That’s because the theme of this summer’s series, announced this week, is all about vehicles. Planes, trains, automobiles, spaceships, balloon-powered houses, Snowpiercers — you name it, it’ll be gassed up and ready to go at dusk every Monday night this summer. If you’ve never been to Lakeside before, it’s a really fun way to watch a movie — the screen’s set up on the stage against the water, prizes are given away before the show, and everybody shouts out their favorite lines during the flick.

I imagine you’ll hear “Those aren’t pillows!” shouted out pretty loudly during the opening film, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” on Monday, May 25. While it may seem strange to see a Thanksgiving movie on Memorial Day Weekend (though maybe not so strange if these low temperatures keep up), John Hughes’ comedy is a stone-cold classic.

Here’s the rest of the Lakeside Cinema schedule. For more information, visit the Wisconsin Union Directorate Film Committee’s site at wudfilm.com.

June 1: “Speed”

June 8: “North by Northwest”

June 15: “Cars”

June 22: “Mad Max” (the original!)

June 29: “The Fast and The Furious”

July 6: “Up”

July 13: “Thelma and Louise”

July 20″ “WALL-E”

July 27: “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure”

Aug. 3: “Con Air”

Aug. 10: “Snowpiercer”

Aug. 17: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl”

Aug. 24: “Airplane!”

Aug. 31: “Top Gun”

Instant Gratification: “The Homesman” and four other good movies to watch on Netflix and Shout Factory TV

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Pick of the week: “The Homesman” (Netflix) — My full review is here. Tommy Lee Jones’ most recent film as director as well as an actor is an “anti-Western” in every sense, following a drunken thief (Jones) and a good woman (Hilary Swank) escorting three emotionally damaged women back East. But it also flips the genre on its head, showing the toll that taming a frontier took on the innocent and defenseless who were dragged along.

“Hoop Dreams” (Shout Factory TV) — The free streaming site shoutfactorytv.com added a bunch of arthouse films in May, including six John Cassavetes classics and Steve James’ wonderful 1994 documentary about two African-American boys hoping their basketball skills will lift them out of the inner city.

“Winter Sleep” — My full review is here. Three characters seem like they’re on the world’s slowest collision course in Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s closely-observed 196-minute drama about an imperious hotel owner whose illusions about his marriage and position in the town are slowly stripped away.

“The Sixth Sense” — Gotta say, M. Night Shyamalan’s new film “The Visit” does not look like a return to form. Better to go back to his modern horror classic about a psychiatrist (Bruce Willis) and the troubled boy (Haley Joel Osment) who can see dead people. Now that we know the twist, it’s fun to watch how artfully Shyamalan executes his sleight-of-hand.

“Futuro Beach” — In this Brazilian drama, a tragic swimming accident brings together a young lifeguard and a German veteran of Afghanistan. The encounter spins their lives off into directions they never imagined, and the film follows them over the next decade as they make choices that can’t be undone.

 

“Merchants of Doubt”: In climate change debate, rising B.S. levels at all-time high

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“Merchants of Doubt” is now playing at Sundance Cinemas. PG-13, 1:36, three stars out of four.

Movies have already been made about the science of climate change, from “An Inconvenient Truth” to “Chasing Ice.” Robert Kenner (“Food Inc.“) has made a movie about the anti-science.

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“The Salt of the Earth”: The world’s beauty and horror, presented in black and white

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“The Salt of the Earth” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. PG-13, 1 hour 50 minutes, three stars out of four.

You may have seen the photo. It’s a black-and-white photo of miners of Brazil’s Serra Pelada gold rush, hundreds of filthy men crawling across the pitted mountainside like ants, scrabbling for their fortunes.

The man who took that photo, Sebastiao Salgado, says he felt like he was witnessing the “dawn of time” when he took that photo. For 40 years, Salgado has traveled the world taking photos in places most would fear to tread, documenting famine, genocide, poverty, death.

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“The D Train”: Things you don’t write in your high school yearbook

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“The D Train” opens Friday at Point, Star Cinema and Sundance. R, 1:37, two and a half stars out of four.

The movie has its flaws, but there’s something gleefully perverse about “The D Train” opening wide this weekend. With Jack Black and James Marsden hugging it out on the poster, it’s going to lure in moviegoers expecting a bro-com like “Neighbors” or “This is the End.”

And then . . . boom.

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Instant Gratification: “Wet Hot American Summer” and four other good movies now on Netflix

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Pick of the week: “Wet Hot American Summer“ — Now that the word is out that Netflix has a new prequel series featuring most of the original cast premiering on July 31, it’s high time to revisit David Wain’s brilliant sendup of ’80s summer-camp sex comedies. I’m curious to see if Paul Rudd can still do that horrible “stud” smile.

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Come talk about “Misery Loves Comedy” at Sundance Cinemas Tuesday

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What drives somebody to stand up in front of a roomful of strangers and try to make them laugh? Kevin Pollak’s new documentary “Misery Loves Comedy” asks a whole lot of funny people that question, including Jimmy Fallon, Amy Schumer, Jim Gaffigan, Marc Maron, Maria Bamford, Lewis Black and many more.

“Misery Loves Comedy” opened Friday at Sundance Cinemas Madison, and although it skates a little lightly over its subject matter (Pollak might have done better to pick 10 comedians and go deeper with them) — it’s a fun, breezy film. Pollak comes across some intriguing insights, especially when he gets the comedians to respond to his central question: Do you have to be miserable to be funny?

Here’s my full review. I’m hosting a post-show chat after the 7:35 p.m. Tuesday show at Sundance Cinemas, 430 N. Midvale Blvd. In a way, I think this fits in with our last two chats after the films “Mr. Turner” and “Seymour: An Introduction,” both of which also looked at the intersection of being an artist and being a human being.

“Comedy” will have more laughs, though. Hope to see you there!

Instant Gratification: “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” and four other good movies now on Netflix

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Pick of the week: “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night” — Here’s my full review. Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut is an intoxicating mix of genres — vampire movie, Spaghetti Western, French New Wave romance — all lovingly mixed together into something fresh and new. I can’t wait to see what Amirpour does next.

“Fed Up” — My full review is here. This illuminating documentary looks at what’s really in the foods we buy at the grocery store, and how that low-calorie yogurt may be worse for us than the regular kind. While it may sound like the usual eat-your-veggies health documentary, the film gives you a lot to chew on.

“National Treasure” — It’s fun to watch Nicolas Cage tamp down his usual wild-man persona into PG territory with this much-parodied but highly watchable Disney adventure about a treasure hunt among America’s prized historic relics. I mean, have they tried pouring lemon juice on the Constitution?

“The Escapist” — Bryan Cox leads a crackerjack British cast in this classic prison-break film that builds suspense by keeping the action as real as possible.

“Five Minutes of Heaven” — Liam Neeson turns in a rare indie performance as a reformed IRA terrorist who agrees to meet with the brother (a twitchy James Nesbitt) of a man he killed decades ago, unaware that the brother has revenge on his mind.